Issues Database

In a parallel case tied to a copyright suit against the ISP Grande Communications, film producers again sought to unmask six Reddit users; the Northern District of California again denied the motion to compel on First Amendment grounds.

Film-copyright holders subpoenaed Reddit to unmask six users who had commented about piracy, hoping to use the posts as evidence in a suit against the ISP RCN; a federal magistrate judge quashed the subpoena on First Amendment grounds.

In a series of copyright cases, movie distributors subpoenaed Reddit to unmask anonymous users who had commented about piracy, but federal magistrate judges in the Northern District of California repeatedly quashed the subpoenas, holding the First Amendment right to anonymous speech outweighed the studios' need.

After the June 2023 API blackout, Reddit invoked its Moderator Code of Conduct to threaten and then remove the mod teams of subreddits that stayed dark, while CEO Steve Huffman dismissed moderators as 'landed gentry.' When protesters marked communities NSFW to strip out ads, Reddit issued final warnings and forced them back to SFW.

A Moscow court fined Reddit two million rubles in August 2023 — its first such penalty in Russia — for failing to remove content the authorities deemed illegal, including material about the war in Ukraine.

After Reddit fired the admin who coordinated celebrity AMAs in 2015, r/IAmA slid into low-effort, PR-managed 'drive-by' promotional Q&As, and the format that once defined Reddit's appeal was widely declared a shadow of its former self.

Andrew Bradshaw, the newly elected mayor of Cambridge, Maryland, posted intimate images of an ex-partner to Reddit with degrading captions; he was charged with 50 counts under Maryland's revenge-porn law in November 2021 and pleaded guilty to five counts in April 2022.

Section 230 immunizes Reddit, its moderators, and its users from liability for posted content, leaving people defamed on the platform with few options short of costly litigation to unmask anonymous posters.

Around the Depp-Heard defamation trial, an analytics firm documented coordinated, partly inauthentic harassment of Amber Heard and her supporters; pro-Depp and anti-Heard communities, including dedicated subreddits, were part of a broader cross-platform fandom ecosystem.

Six plaintiffs sued Reddit over child sexual abuse material posted in subreddits, arguing the FOSTA exception stripped Section 230 immunity; in 2022 the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal, reading the carve-out narrowly.

Reddit runs on unpaid volunteer moderators whose exposure to harmful content and harassment causes documented psychological harm — a problem underscored by professional-moderator PTSD lawsuits across the industry.